New guidelines for education of mother tongue in CBSE schools released.

CBSE Schools: CBSE has taken important steps regarding the education of mother tongue in schools. CBSE has released a guideline to focus on mother tongue. In which all the affiliated schools have been asked to map the mother tongue of the students as soon as possible. The CBSE circular says that according to the National Education Policy 2020, the pre-primary second grade is called Foundational Stage. In it, children should be studied in their home language, mother tongue or an acquaintance regional language. This language, called R1, should ideally be mother tongue.

The CBSE circular further states that students from class 3 to 5 can continue to learn in mother tongue/familiar regional language or can be given the option of studying in any other medium. This circular issued on May 22 shows that studies in mother tongue can start from July.

CBSE has indicated for the first time that it can make mother tongue -based education mandatory in its schools. The board had so far encouraged its use through the National Education Policy 2020 and School Education 2023 only through the advisory circular.

What does National Education Policy 2020 say?

National Education Policy 2020 and NCFSE 2023 recommend using mother tongue in both elementary education. Especially by the age of eight in Foundational Stage. NCFSE 2023 states that children learn concepts fastest and deeply in their home language. Therefore, the primary medium of instructions will be the language/mother tongue/familiar language of the child’s house.

The implementation committee has to be formed

In the CBSE circular, all schools have been asked to form an NCF implementation committee by the end of May. This committee will map students mother tongues, language resources. At the same time, schools have also been asked to complete the language mapping exercises at the earliest.